7 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Installing Outdoor Lighting

7 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Installing Outdoor Lighting

Summary

Properly installed outdoor lighting can enhance the appearance and safety of your home. These are our top 7 outdoor lighting mistakes to keep in mind when choosing the right light for your home.

7 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Installing Outdoor Lighting
outdoor landscape lights
There are many types of outdoor lighting to choose from, each designed to provide the greatest benefit to your home and yard. Outdoor lighting enhances the look and feels of your home, but more importantly, it also increases safety.

Outdoor lighting shouldn't be chosen based solely on its appearance. You must consider other elements of good outdoor lighting that ultimately bring the most value to your investment.

At TFB Lighting, we help every client find the perfect lighting for their home and lifestyle. We've helped hundreds of people choose outdoor lights for their homes, and we've learned exactly what to do and what to avoid when installing lighting on the exterior of your home.

These are our top 7 outdoor lighting mistakes to keep in mind when choosing the right light for your home.

1. Do not plan the power requirements of outdoor landscape lights

Adding any type of new lighting to a home requires not only more energy but also additional installation. Any potential purchase should consider wiring, layout, and cost prior to installation.

You should also consider bulb type, average lifespan based on energy consumption, and the extent to which using new lamps may affect your electricity bill.

Fortunately, we offer many low-energy, high-power lighting solutions that can provide you with everything you need for outdoor lighting without draining your home's resources. You can determine the minimum lighting power required by calculating lumens. Lumens is a measure of the brightness of a light, ranging from low-level ambient lighting at 50 lumens to bright safety-level lighting at 2400 lumens and beyond.

2. The light distribution of landscape lights is uneven

Installing lighting in only a portion of the exterior ultimately reduces its efficacy. You may pay for lighting that defeats its purpose or find that your investment doesn't cover the amount of space you really need to benefit from new lighting.

Every landscape should have proper outdoor lighting. Not only does this make your home more visually appealing, but it also makes it easier to navigate in the dark.

From an aesthetic standpoint, focal points are an important element of lighting that you should consider. You want to make sure the lights highlight the best features of your yard and exterior without overwhelming them.

Our professional lighting consultants can help you create the perfect outdoor lighting layout for maximum impact and value.

3. Navigation of landscape lights unbalanced light

Some outdoor lighting looks beautiful from a distance but isn't easy to use when you actually need to navigate after the sun goes down. While appearance is important, it's not the only factor that matters when choosing the best outdoor lighting for your home.

For example, consider natural or man-made paths, and how different types of lighting arrangements will affect them. It's best to stagger the lights along the path to provide clear, consistent lighting from the entrance to the exit of your home. A simple, obvious path should be established to ensure that you can always move comfortably around your property after dark.

4. Do not install an outdoor landscape light timer

An automatic timer ensures your lights are always on when you need them, and turn off before too much power is wasted. Timers don't just save money. They save the bulbs and keep them as long as possible.

Timers can be set to run at specific times of day, or they can be connected to motion sensors. Lighting that receives activity can automatically turn on and off after a period of time without any detectable movement. A timer connected to a motion sensor helps balance the ideal safety of outdoor lighting with the practical need to save energy and reduce costs.

5. Think all outdoor landscape lights are the same

Before making any purchases, you should clearly understand the differences between outdoor lighting. These differences affect the light's brightness, performance, and how best to integrate it into your landscape.

For example, when installing directional lights, you must consider the shadows they will cast, how those shadows will affect navigation, and how textures can affect your visual perception and the best lighting color for your situation.

6. Using too many landscape lights

Some homeowners make the mistake of installing too many lights. This could be due to poor lighting, and using multiple ill-fitting lights doesn't actually improve much. The best solution is to choose lamps with the right lighting for your space.

For example, downlights work best on patios, balconies, and multi-story homes because it increases the dispersion of the surface below. They can also help prevent damage to fixtures planted in lawns that are more vulnerable to weather and landscaping damage.

Rather than relying too much on multiple lights, find the highest quality, most efficient lights to install, saving money and increasing aesthetic value.

7. Forget about the glare of landscape lights

Lighting must be installed correctly for its own sake, i.e. correct navigation, optimal visibility, and aesthetic impact. But there are also practical considerations, such as the effect that light may have indoors when shining through windows and glass doors.

Glare from outdoor lighting can be uncomfortable and distracting. It can also cause outdoor lights to appear too bright, making your space feel less inviting overall.

Properly spaced lights will ensure they provide maximum impact outdoors without negatively impacting your indoor experience. The size of the light fixture, bulb type, color, location, and lumens also affect the intensity of the light in the landscape. You may need to reduce the number of exterior lights in your home, relocate them, or replace their bulbs to correct glare.

The above details 7 common mistakes to avoid when installing outdoor lighting, if you want to buy outdoor landscape lights, welcome to contact us.

TFB Lighting is a professional custom outdoor landscape light manufacturer. The company mainly produces all kinds of floodlights, garden lights, floor lamps, lawn lamps, wall lamps, underwater lamps, wall lamps, spotlights, street lamps, solar energy and landscape lighting, and other products. There are many varieties and high quality, which are widely used in decorative lighting of various roads, squares, parks, villas, pedestrian streets, garden communities, and other places.